Each team apparently was out to demonstrate how much it needs the best starting pitcher in Japan. Even if he's not made available this offseason.

A little absurd? Well, yes. But no more so than the Mariners losing an entire 11-game road trip and the Yankees sweeping five games from the Red Sox in Boston.

Then to cross up everything, add Adrian Beltre's walkoff, off-field, off-the-top-of-the-wall home run to beat the Yankees 6-5 and raise the Mariners off their lips.

Perhaps the offseason matchup will prove as fruitful for Mariners fans.

Popular speculation posits that the Yankees and Mariners are the early front runners for the potential services of Matsuzaka, 26, who dazzled in the inaugural World Baseball Classic and continues to dominate in his homeland, with a 2.30 earned-run average and more than nine strikeouts per nine innings.

Naturally, no one involved is commenting, which means there's plenty of room for the rest of us.

The topic was relevant Tuesday because the Mariners' annual in-season tryout camp was under way with Baek called up to substitute for a sore Gil Meche. The move followed the demotion of erstwhile starter Joel Pineiro to the bullpen, as well as the Saturday trade of Jamie Moyer to Philadelphia.

For those scoring at home, that's 60 percent of the rotation gone to hell, or at least its suburbs.

Meche, who asked for the rest because his right forearm is sore, has been rebooked to start Saturday. But with the season lost and Meche scheduled for free agency, the possibility is chubby that he's a candidate for a trade.

Any injury complicates that plan. But if it is just tendinitis, as Meche says, the club has until the Aug. 31 deadline to heal him and deal him to a contender eager to take another Mariners refugee and turn him into a star. Otherwise, he goes into free agency destined to leave for nothing in return.

Had the Mariners bosses known the club was about to fall off the edge of the planet this month, they might have dealt Meche and Moyer before the July 31 non-waiver deadline for more value.

But then, why interfere with one of the club's few traditions?

The one place in the personnel bazaar where the Mariners have been productive is Japan. Now that they need starting pitching like Floyd Landis, Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones need stupendous excuses, Matsuzaka looms large.

The complication is that, unlike Kenji Johjima, he lacks the service time in Japan to be eligible for free agency this winter. So, like Ichiro Suzuki in 2001, he must be posted by his Japanese club, the Seibu Lions.

If the Lions do post him -- that remains uncertain -- that means American clubs interested in his services must submit a sealed, blind bid. The highest bidder gives the money to Seibu for the right to negotiate a contract with the pitcher.

The process is pricey. Because two of the American game's wealthiest clubs, the Mariners and Yankees, are the most eager, published speculation is the posting price might run as high as $30 million.

Considering that baseball was aghast when the Mariners beat the Yankees to Ichiro with a bid slightly north of $13 million, such an inflation rate for a guy who at best will appear 33 times in a season is already causing practice swoons in executive offices.

While $30 million seems off the charts, remember that where George Steinbrenner is involved, a recalibration of the term "stupid" is always in order.

Funny thing is, the current salaries of Moyer, Pineiro and Meche combined are $16 million. So if the Mariners wanted to offer a posting bid of $25 million, and spread it out over, say, a five-year, $50 million contract as a signing bonus, the average annual value of $15 million would be less than what they paid this year for three guys to be mediocre.

As was said, it's a little pricey for a guy unproven in the major leagues. Still, at least 19 teams have starters making $8 million. The Yankees are paying Mike Mussina $19 million and Randy Johnson $15.7 million. And perhaps no other wealthy team in baseball needs a No. 1 starter more than the Mariners.

Which brings us back to Baek and Karstens. Baek threw five creditable innings Tuesday, erring only with a three-run homer to Bobby Abreu. Karstens went 5 2/3 innings and also gave up three runs. Call it a draw.

But desperation is clearly most urgent on the Mariners side. If the proposed bid for Matsuzaka is at all plausible, the Mariners have to find two more cheap starters. One almost certainly has to come from the farm system.

If Meche and Pineiro depart, that means the Mariners have produced a quality, long-term starter (Hernandez) from the organization about as often as they build a new ballpark.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Baek is about it as far as a major league-ready starter in the system. And this was a guy the Mariners waived from the 40-man roster last December, partly because of slow recovery from injury and partly because of some questionable dedication to work.

All he had to do Tuesday was rescue his team from perhaps the most embarrassing losing streak in club history against baseball's most formidable lineup. That he did not spontaneously combust on the mound has to be considered a good sign for Mariners fans.

If he establishes he is more than a one-game wonder, it will help make the Mariners more attractive to Matsuzaka, who otherwise would have to accept a contract clause requiring him to make three of every five starts.